Biocides, and in particular pesticides such as fungicides, insecticides and herbicides, are important auxiliary agents for agriculture in order to protect and to increase the yield of crops. Depending on the various and often very specific needs, a number of actives exist, which show very different chemical structures and behaviours. Nevertheless, it is well known from the state of the art that it remains difficult to prepare aqueous solutions of these actives exhibiting a satisfactory stability, especially if stored over a longer time at very low or elevated temperatures. As a matter of fact, the solutions show a strong tendency to either separate or form crystals, which makes it necessary to re-disperse the actives in the compositions prior to every application in order to obtain a homogenous product. Due to the fact that in spray equipments, which is customarily used for the application of aqueous formulations of plant treatment agents, several filters and nozzles are present, an additional problem appears which is related to the blocking of these filters and nozzles as a result of crystallizing active compound during the application of aqueous spray liquors based on solid active ingredients.
European patent application EP 0453899 B1 (Bayer) discloses the use of dimethylamides derived from saturated C6-C20 fatty acids as crystallisation inhibitors for azol derivatives which can be applied as fungicides. Unfortunately, the dimethylamides suggested in the patent are useful for a limited number of actives. Even in case of azols and azol derivatives the ability to inhibit unwanted crystallisation is limited to ambient temperatures, while the products are close to being useless in case the solutions have to be used at temperatures of about 5 to 10° C.
Therefore the problem underlying the present invention has been to avoid the disadvantages of the state of the art and develop new compositions with improved storage stability and reduced tendency to form crystals for a wide range of biocides within a temperature range between 5 and 40° C.